Black Caps and Red Feathers

written by John Ngong Kum Ngong

In Black Caps and Red Feathers the reader is taken into Creature’s subconscious on the garbage heap where he is tenant, and where he recounts his multitudinous and gruesome experiences in Traourou’s underground prisons. Ancestral Earth, set within a traditional African background, indicts Akeumbin, the king and custodian of the earth of Allehtendurih, who is caught in the dilemma of stopping a plague caused by the reckless exploitation of the earth and showing affection for his fiftieth bride. In compliance with the Princes of Earth, the women who are the principal victims, bring pressure to bear on the King who condescends to the urgency of appeasing the Ancestral Earth. The common denominator in both plays is communal grudge against irresponsible leadership and its fallouts of indiscriminate victimization that allow for the anticipation of a new or renewed consciousness.

John Ngong Kum Ngong

John Ngong Kum Ngong was born in Esu, Menchum Division, North West Region of Cameroon. He attended Cameroon Protestant College Bali, Bilingual Grammar School Molyko, Buea and the University of Yaoundé. He holds a Masters degree in African Literature and a Certificate in Reading in a foreign Language from the University of Birmingham, England. Winner of the 1st EduArt Bate Besong Award for Poetry in 2007 for Walls of Agony, John Ngong Kum Ngong has equally published Battle for Survival (play, 2006) and Chants of a Lunatic (poetry, 2007) all with Editions Clé. He is presently Principal of Government Bilingual High School Etoug – Ebe, Yaoundé.